Sons of Ironstorm - Book 3: New Alliance

Mamra

"Port Titus," Will said from his spot just behind Lawrence. Both men looked to starboard as the Falcon began to heel about to follow the Mamran cutter they had followed in to shore. The slender Mamran vessel was a good three lengths ahead, already passing the outer marker warding the entrance to the protected harbor built around the great delta of the Kanekell River, the main artery flowing out of the heart of the Mamran highlands.

The capital city of Mamra was a sprawling urban port, one of the largest cities in the Hammer, second only to Morgan's Galental City. It was made even more so by the mass of the Corith Asean shipyards, hewn from the Kanekell's northern bank just as it began to branch into the great Kanekeller Cae'asith delta. As impressive as it was, however, it was nothing compared to the stone behemoth that crouched on top the low series of hills rising to the southwest like a highland lion, ready to pounce.

Here was Seamus Tod's palace. Or rather, his keep, fashioned after the manner of the hill lords that held sway in the MaKalech Mountains in his name, with tall and thick walls, the defensive genius of the Thac Brenaugh with its curving approach, multitudinous guard towers and the leviathan bulk of his central keep. So magnetic was its martial power and majesty that eyes were automatically drawn to it as soon as it came into sight with entrance into the bay. The heavy druid ring sitting on a hilltop just to the north was easily overlooked, dwarfed by the keep beside it.

The keep's placement served two purposes: not only did it symbolize the lasting power of House Mamus, which at the fall of the Cadremoor Alliance, reached across the MaKalech to carve Mamra from the stony ground of the highlands. But it also served to remind Mamra's potential enemies of her martial might, the highlanders a puissant and determined fighting force that had few equals on the battlefield.

Despite the keep's pull capturing Will's attention almost immediately, Lawrence found his eyes drawn to the much smaller circle of standing stones that marked the druid ring. 'The great ring,' he silently named it, a thoughtful expression on his handsome face as he let his eyes scan the circle. 'Supposedly raised on a power node by the first druids to walk the face of Ramnor. Could it do what the Tree hoped it could? Could it amplify her power enough to open a gate to the Muraan lands so I can complete my quest?'

Slabs of weathered granite three arm spans tall, one and a half wide and half an arm span thick stared silently back at him from nearly a league distant, holding their answers close. If the great ring had what he was looking for, it wasn't revealing any clues to him from here.

Abruptly the water beneath the Falcon's keel calmed as she slid past the heavy, natural breakwater protecting the harbor from the Hydrai's winter anger, and whatever other storms swept off the great eastern sea. On the breakwater's tip, a jut of stone clawing into the clear waters of the Cae'asith Bay off the hills tumbling down into the water from their crests beneath Seamus' castle, stood Ion's Watch, a spear of polished granite that guarded the bay entrance.

Said to be a remnant from a long dead Cadremoor Alliance outpost and erected by magic, as was Tal Morun, Talemon's capital, Ion's Watch was untouched by the hundreds of cycles worth of storms, wind and spray that had pounded it since it rose from the granite breakwater untold time ago. A narrow walkway circled its peak, protected by an overhanging roof that kept the worst of the elements off the walkway, and accessed via two doors into the interior where a large room housed several guards and the staircase winding down along the outer wall and up from the room's center.

Above this chamber stood the fire room, a conical projection out of the roof with crystal windows that was reached via the central staircase. The windows, perfectly transparent and as unmarked by time and weather as the tower's walls, allowed a full circle of uninterrupted view in every direction. Here, in a massive oil lamp, shone the Watch's fog light through the crystal windows to guide mariners into port through poor visibility. Once the holder supported a magical light source from the time of the Alliance but after early Mamran engineers and wizards failed to discover how to make the device work, it was replaced with the great lamp. Two engineers lived in the tower every Watch of the day and night to maintain the lamp and ensure its oil reservoir never ran dry.